Penny Black Critter Card Challenge

This week on the Penny Black Blog, the card challenge is to create a "Critter" card using one of the many Penny Black Critter images - the mice, the hedgies, the cats, the bears... So many cuties to choose from, where do I start? Well, once I got creating, I couldn't really stop at one now, could I?

This first card was relatively straight forward to create. I first die-cut a rounded square using a Lifestyle Crafts Rounded Nesting Squares die. Keeping the die in place, I created a simple background by alternately masking and sponging Tumbled Glass and Shabby Shutters distress ink. This kept a white border around the background to help "frame" the image. Then I stamped the super-cute little hedgehog from Penny Black 30-029 wonderful clear set with Memento Tuxedo Black straight onto the background, then again on a small piece of white cardstock. I coloured the white piece in with TRIA alcohol markers, then cut out just the hedgehog and stuck it over the background with foam tape. A tiny bit of stickles was added to the flowers. The image was then layered onto some backing card, and the large scalloped border at the bottom was created with the Spellbinders Edgeabilities Classic Scallop border die. The greeting is a 7gypsies Library stamp.

For this card, I created it pretty much the same way as the one above, except I used Scattered Straw distress ink for the ground, and the two gift-bearing hedgies from the same Penny Black 30-029 wonderful set. The hot pink frame is die-cut from Lifestyle Crafts Nesting Frames 4, and the purple faux scallop ribbon is diecut using Die-namics Scalloped Ribbon die. The greeting is from Hero Arts LL662 Small Greetings and is punched with circle & scalloped circle punches.

I have to admit that I got the Penny Black 30-066 eat cake clear set pretty much for this image alone. Who can go past this adorable little bear and the sweet smiling tortoise? The image is layered onto a Nesting Lace Circle diecut from Lifestyle Crafts. A Fiskars scalloped border punch was used to create the cream diagonal panel at the back. The greeting is from Hero Arts CL480 Wish You Were Here clear set and is stamped with Versafine Vintage Sepia. A few sakura flower punchies with a rhinestone complete this fairly straight forward card.

The only extra step in this card is that I created the patterned paper for the lace circle frame myself by first inking up a piece of white cardstock with Tumbled Glass and Broken China Distress ink, then I sprayed it with Sea Glass Glimmer Mist. After it dried, I stamped on it randomly with Penny Black 4180J reverie using Encore Ultimate Metallic Blue ink. Then I diecut the lace circle out with a Crafts Nesting Lace Circle die. I touched up any empty spots by stamping with reverie again. The dark blue card blank was diecut with a large circle die from Lifestyle Crafts Nesting Circles set.

Penny Black Color Trio Card Challenge

For this week's Penny Black Card Challenge, the theme is to use a trio of colours: purple, green & cream. I chose to do a couple of simple cards in the challenge colours.

For the first card, I stamped Penny Black 4200K berry wreath using Encore Ultimate Metallic Honeydew ink onto cream cardstock. I then diecut it with Lifestyle Crafts Rounded Nesting Squares die, and matted that onto a slightly larger piece of purple cardstock. This was then attached with foam tape to another two mats diecut with Lifestyle Crafts Nesting Frame 4. I attached a purple bow on with glossy accents, then stuck a few rhinestones to the wreath, and decorated with a mix of stickles and liquid/dimensional pearls. The little greeting is from Penny Black 30-018 crystalline clear set, and is stamped with Brilliance Victorian Violet. All in all a fairly simple card, but I do love the slightly non-traditional Christmas colours.

Would you believe I've never made an Easel card before? Well, I decided to try it out for the next card, and actually found that they were surprising easy to do. Can't believe it took me until now to actually make one! For this card, I first diecut a piece of cream cardstock with Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 17, then stamped it with Penny Black 40-083 twinkling using Honeydew ink. "Celebrate the Season" from Penny Black 30-086 let it snow was stamped with Encore Ultimate Metallic Purple. The tree was decorated with stickles and liquid/dimensional pearls. The completed image was then layered onto several layers of coloured card, then attached to a card blank, which had had the top piece folded in half.

The greeting on the inside was stamped with Penny Black 4116H a wonderful christmas using Brilliance Victorian Violet, and diecut with Nestabilities Curved Rectangles, before layering onto coloured cardstock. This was then was attached to the card with foam tape, which allows the front of the card to rest against it when the card it opened, forming the easel.

Supplies Used:
Penny Black 4200K berry wreath
Penny Black 30-018 crystalline clear set
Penny Black 40-083 twinkling
Penny Black 30-086 let it snow clear set
Penny Black 4116H a wonderful christmas
Penny Black 3878F simple scroll
Encore Ultimate Metallic Honeydew & Purple
Brilliance Victorian Violet
Lifestyle Crafts Rounded Nesting Squares & Nesting Frame 4
Spellbinder Nestabilities Labels 17 & Curved Rectangles
Stickles Glitter Glue
Liquid Pearls & Dimensional Pearls